Speaking to WLS Radio's Don and Roma this morning, Minutemen Illinois Director Rosanna Pulido had an unsettling suggestion for Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis:
“With the violence I've seen at these other [events] brought on by all of these [immigrant rights] groups that are coming to protest, I would like to see Mr. Jody Weis and all the new AK-47s that he had purchased for him by the Mayor, I think he may want to bring them down to DePaul tonight, because from what I've seen from past practices with these groups, they may come in handy. “
Which violent protesters was she concerned about? Apparently, members of Chicago's immigrant rights community who are displeased with the DePaul University Conservative Alliance's decision to bring controversial Minuteman Civil Defense Corps President Chris Simcox on campus for a speech tonight. A coalition of local organizations have vowed to pray for the speaker but not to interrupt his presentation. Yesterday, they met for an outdoor mass before they walked to DePaul to camp out overnight in anticipation of the event.
Frightening stuff.
Enrique Morones, founder of the group Border Angels and a participant in the expected protest, told Chicago's CBS affiliate that "it's so wrong for DePaul University to allow somebody that promotes and practices hate and gets people fired up to go out there and commit violent acts, to speak at the school."
On WLS, Pulido defended the practices of the Minutemen, telling Don and Roma that its members simply "observe and report." But this 2003 Salon profile of Simcox and his organization's practices suggests an organization with ties to white nationalists that boasts a record of inhumanely detaining Mexicans while increasing a climate of intolerance in the border states.
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